Guitar Practicing Question and a Comment on Ear Training

Guitar Practicing Question and a Comment on Ear Training

Q: I know that I sent an email about practicing, but I just want to say that I’ve made tremendous progress with the Ear Training One Note Complete  Intermediate Level training. After three days I’m getting 95% of the intermediate CD correct with plenty of time to spare. This is by far the most effective practice I’ve done in a while. It forces me to organize my thoughts. I have a good ear for recognition of pitch, but identification is so important. I’ve been listening to music and identifying melodies as they apply to the key center with actual ease. Really great stuff, thanks. As far as the practice schedule, whenever you get a chance to offer some suggestions, that’d be awesome, I can’t wait to keep improving.

A: As far as a schedule goes you should plan on 4 to 5 hours of practice a day if you have the time. You should work up to this amount because it’s easy to burn out and consistency is important.For the scales I’d like to see you get through all keys all positions in the next 3 months. The scales don’t have to be fast just have them be consistent in tempo as you go up and down.

I also want you to make some flash cards for testing the scales:

1 set with list of all 19 scales 1 set with degress 1-7 1 set with all keys.

So you turn over one card it says Dorianb2 you turn over another and it says 3rd you turn over the last and it says Bb

So you play a BbDorianb2 scale from the 3rd.

You of course should go through all keys all scales all degrees but use these cards to help test yourself.

Make sure to also apply the scales to vamps and tunes so you understand how each scale sounds.

With the Chord Workbook for Guitar Volume One you pretty much know most of the chords so find the ones you don’t know and play them cycle 5 i.e. C, F, Bb, Eb, etc… Read the section of Chord Reharmonization and then learn and analyze the chord progressions in the back of the book. Check under the Chord Workbook title on the www.Muse-eek.com Website members area there are MP3 files of the chord progressions so you can play along with me. This will help to make sure you have the right feel and give you a backing track to solo over. Try to learn a few new progressions each week. Analyze the progressions and let me know if you have any questions.

Continue theEar Training One Note Complete  Intermediate Level training. Glad to hear it is going well.

With all guitar practicing I can’t emphasis the importance of correct technique so monitor your technique with a mirror or even video tape yourself.